I'm also curious to see how Fewell decides to attack your interior OL. Last time, he put JPP inside and hoped he could create inside pressure, but it didn't work. I hate when he does that bc JPP is so much more effective as a RE. We should never move him around, but whatever.

Fewell doesn't like blitzing, so I expect more of the same. We'll see lots of DE action inside, some stunts. Most likely see some JPP at DT. I'd like to see them blitz the A gap all game long but he won't do that. So it will be interesting to see how your interior OL holds up to our DEs who get kicked inside.

Your run game like you said is the ultimate equalizer. If you can run and force us to keep some of our DEs off the field in our nickel packages, that will help a lot. I think your outside WRs have to take advantage of their matchups too.

We'll give you a lot of umbrella looks. I like Austin in this matchup.

They're not getting talked about as much this week because we didn't run as well, but they really did a good job of keeping Romo clean.

Let me throw this out:
If Romo hits Austin, which he normally does. Austin doesn't get stripped of the ball and Dez makes the play on the ball that hits him in the arms, this team scores more than 30 points. Would we be feeling better this morning? I think so and I'm not asking for these scenarios to be far fetched.

I think the offense is in better shape than some want to believe and, back to my original point, I think this OL is getting better and better.

__________________
In war, you win or lose, live or die - and the difference is just an eyelash.

I don't expect division games to be blow outs. The Giants aren't clicking on all cylinders either. We're winning close games, and we scratched our way out of a couple of games that should have been easy. We're not playing high quality ball right now. Just good enough to win.

I don't know how much stock you put into ProFootballFocus stats..but he continuously grades out in the top 5 in his position. That's..."Great", imo.

Not "Elite" though. But how many teams have 2 elite pass rushers that can also play the run well?

I was definitely in the Anti-Franchising Spencer campaign. I wanted to use that money and go for a Guard... Carl Nicks would've been great...I didn't even think he would enter FA.

...and I wanted to get an OLB in the draft. ...Bruce Irvin (never guessed that Seattle was going to take him at 13 though), Whitney Mercilus (did you see him harrass the Ravens yesterday??? Sack, FF, tipped pass... Holy Terror!), Chandler Jones...

Obviously, trading up for Mo was incredible and eliminated the possibility of us nabbing a top DE/OLB. So post draft, I was obviously more open to using the tag on Spencer. While still hesitant to sign him long term at a big contract at the end of this season.

I still am on the fence. One thing I know we need more of is QB pressure. If we can't get that consistently from Spencer, then we need to get that at DE. I see guys like JJ Watt, Haloti Ngata generating pass rush from the 3-4 DE position and I look at us and we're not doing that. Ratliff can do it, but he's stuck playing NT. I'm not a fan of Hatcher/Spears/Coleman. Lissemore's been hurt. I'd like to see more of Brent and Ratliff on the field together. Or gimme a guy like Brockers who could play NT or DE. Alabama's Jesse Williams is that guy for me this year.

I'm happy with Spencer this year, but shouldn't we? He's getting paid as one of the Top players at his position, so he should produce like it. Looking at the future, I think we need to see what we have in Kyle Wilber before the season's end. It's still early, but if he shows flashes before the season's over, you can bet questions will rise about whether we should extend Spencer or not. Can we afford him? That' my biggest question and it still remains.

I don't expect division games to be blow outs. The Giants aren't clicking on all cylinders either. We're winning close games, and we scratched our way out of a couple of games that should have been easy. We're not playing high quality ball right now. Just good enough to win.

I think it will be close. They almost always are close games.

Nah, the Redskins are legit. You shouldn't have expected a blow out. Unlike Carolina... when you guys face inferior talent, you blow them out.

I fully expect a spanking from the Giants who own Dallas Stadium. The key to this game is Romo being more aggressive on deeper passes. He only threw 1 pass beyond 20 yards against Carolina. He was 4-11 on passes between 10-19 yards. Most of his completions were short passes yesterday. The offense was conservative as hell. If we're gonna beat the Giants, Romo is gonna have to take off his Captain Checkdown cape.

As long as this guy keeps sticking around developing, there might be one day where he becomes a starter.

I wouldn't doubt it. He has the ability just had a huge gap coming out of Missouri State. Think he'll follow the Doug Free progression. He was inactive all last year and is getting more reps in practice. Next year I'll be looking for him to own a game-day slot. Whether that is a huge jump and he's starting or a modest one into a primary backup.

- To D-Units point about Spencer, I am starting to lean toward the down lineman being a bigger issue. I was on the get Spencer out of town bandwagon too but I think he has been a bright spot thus far. He has been active as a pass rusher and has shown the ability to disengage blockers to find the ball in pursuit. The problem is opposing QB's have been able to avoid the pressure by simply stepping up in the pocket and letting the tackles carry the OLB out of the play. We have no impact players outside of Ratliff on the inside and as a collective unit have difficulty collapsing the interior line. I'm extremely happy with the LB crew that we have starting and are one player away from having an upper echelon secondary. I think by adding a quality NT in the draft we can preserve Jay for pass rushing situations and allow him to shift out to 5tech where he would see less doubles. That alone would have a trickle down affect to Spencer and Ware on the outside adding pressures and sacks.

- On offense I am starting to notice a trend of how teams are using similar play calling to defend against what Garrett likes to do. Defenses have been played with seven in the box with a lot of press man on the outside against the base offense. Thus an overload of players to stuff against the run but against the pass the linebackers quickly bail into a shallow zone to defend against the quick toss. Witten draws some attention from one of the safeties while the other plays deep and shades toward Miles. Sounds simple enough to take advantage by getting the ball to Dez right? Well advance scouts know what we do and more, that he doesn't have a big route tree and that their corners can frustrate him by playing physical. The corner can then play tight and essentially have an idea of what routes to defend. Tony has countered by throwing the quick toss and letting Dez work with the ball in his hands which has been somewhat effective but teams are able to gang tackle with the linebackers dropping into zone coverage.

- The spread offense has clearly been the most consistent means of moving the chains. I'm surprised Garrett hasn't gone that route more often and hasn't tried to run from the open formation. Also, the offense doesn't feature enough stacking / bunch formations to create spacing imo. Something else that might help is activating Beasley and giving him some play in the slot. As of now there are only two players who are good at reading zone coverage Miles and Witten. I don't understand why they don't have a package for Hannah to get involved in the passing game. He is a guy who is athletic enough to stretch the field vertically from the TE position.

- To D-Units point about Spencer, I am starting to lean toward the down lineman being a bigger issue. I was on the get Spencer out of town bandwagon too but I think he has been a bright spot thus far. He has been active as a pass rusher and has shown the ability to disengage blockers to find the ball in pursuit. The problem is opposing QB's have been able to avoid the pressure by simply stepping up in the pocket and letting the tackles carry the OLB out of the play. We have no impact players outside of Ratliff on the inside and as a collective unit have difficulty collapsing the interior line. I'm extremely happy with the LB crew that we have starting and are one player away from having an upper echelon secondary. I think by adding a quality NT in the draft we can preserve Jay for pass rushing situations and allow him to shift out to 5tech where he would see less doubles. That alone would have a trickle down affect to Spencer and Ware on the outside adding pressures and sacks.

- On offense I am starting to notice a trend of how teams are using similar play calling to defend against what Garrett likes to do. Defenses have been played with seven in the box with a lot of press man on the outside against the base offense. Thus an overload of players to stuff against the run but against the pass the linebackers quickly bail into a shallow zone to defend against the quick toss. Witten draws some attention from one of the safeties while the other plays deep and shades toward Miles. Sounds simple enough to take advantage by getting the ball to Dez right? Well advance scouts know what we do and more, that he doesn't have a big route tree and that their corners can frustrate him by playing physical. The corner can then play tight and essentially have an idea of what routes to defend. Tony has countered by throwing the quick toss and letting Dez work with the ball in his hands which has been somewhat effective but teams are able to gang tackle with the linebackers dropping into zone coverage.

- The spread offense has clearly been the most consistent means of moving the chains. I'm surprised Garrett hasn't gone that route more often and hasn't tried to run from the open formation. Also, the offense doesn't feature enough stacking / bunch formations to create spacing imo. Something else that might help is activating Beasley and giving him some play in the slot. As of now there are only two players who are good at reading zone coverage Miles and Witten. I don't understand why they don't have a package for Hannah to get involved in the passing game. He is a guy who is athletic enough to stretch the field vertically from the TE position.

Love your breakdown. Unfortunately, I don't think Beasley will get a chance unless an injury occurs or in garbage time. I really like him though and I want to see more. He played for June Jones, so I know his route tree is expansive. Since Ogletree has tapered off, I would wish that we start to look more at our WR depth, but I don't see Garrett actually doing it.

Dez doesn't need to have to run every route. I'm not trying to be defensive. I know he can't. But Austin can! We're using our WRs wong. When Dez was a rookie he was going deep A LOT and having a ton of success doing it. We've gone away from that and thus we're not seeing him fulfill the potential he has as a big play receiver. People are getting frustrated. When LonghornsLegend gets mad that Tony is not involving Dez enough it's likely due to that exact thing you said about defenses being able to defend his limited route tree. But if we used Dez right, and all we did was send him deep or use his physicality in the short passing game, then I think our offense would be much better off. He has the ability to bust bracket coverage, out jump DBs, or draw PIs.

Right now, using Austin as our deep receiver isn't working either. He can run any route, separate and frustrate defenders, but all we seem to be doing is using him as a decoy to open up the underneath. Romo only had 1 pass attempt beyond 20 yards which was a 26 yarder to Austin. That's simply not enough. We need to be more aggressive downfield. I've been guilty of calling Romo Captain Checkdown because that's all he seems to do lately.

We have the talent, but the way our coach is running the show is very head scratching. Garrett is supposed to be a disciple of Norv. Obviously he's put his own mix into it, but this is another watered down version of Don Coryell's offense. Air Coryell's offense is a deep vertical attack with a power running scheme. The deep read is the 1st read! ...and we're supposed to be sending mutliple people deep. Where is the vertical part of this offense??? I haven't seen it. The deep play is designed to open up space for our TE, RB or another WR underneath. I can maybe put some blame on the OL for not protecting Romo long enough for the deep routes to develop, but it's supposed to be set up by effective play action. Not just dropping back and waiting. Our running game has been improving, so that should make the play action more effective. Hopefully we get Murray back against the Giants.

Part of me thinks that Garrett is being ultra conservative with Austin and doesn't want him getting hurt (which he is prone to) by running a lot of underneath routes. So that's why we have Dez trying to do it (and not having a ton of success). We need to change it up. Hey, and maybe by doing so we even eliminate the kinds of passes that come to Dez face up, where his basket catches won't let the ball bounce off his pads! Send him deep where he has to catch the ball over his shoulder or win it in a jump catch. Let our "hands" guy in Miles who can shred turf with his excellent route running torch defenders and keep them guessing and our offense less predictable. Once we establish that then we can start to really get confusing by flipping roles between WRs, getting Witten in the open, drawing more coverage against the pass and taking advantage of that in the Murray power run game.

Maybe Garrett's lack of trust in Romo and the WRs is the cause... I dunno...maybe Garrett's scheme is so far from what he came from that it's just predictable and ineffective. One thing's for sure... if all we do is throw short, short, short, run, run, run.... then our offense will be underused and predictable and we won't win many games.

One thing's for sure... if all we do is throw short, short, short, run, run, run.... then our offense will be underused and predictable and we won't win many games.

Yep. BtB broke it down nicely.

Quote:

18: The number of plays in the Cowboys' first scoring drive, which netted three points. On the drive, they converted four third downs, but came up a yard short on a fifth, on third and goal from the Panthers' seven yard line. Although impressive, such a grinding drive has a clear downside; Dallas gained ten or more yards only twice, and gained four or fewer yards on eight of the eighteen plays. For those of you who failed math, that's six plays per point, which, if it remains an operating mode, a) isn't going to generate a lot of high-scoring games and b) requires that a team be almost perfect in its execution (when an offense averages four to five yards a play, any negative play almost certainly becomes a drive-killer).

We need big plays mixed in with our current approach. We have the speed to make it happen and Tony can toss the ball deep VERY well. That over the shoulder toss to Austin in the end zone was about the most perfect throw one can make.

Quote:

9: Romo's number, as well as his suitably perfect start to the game, wherein he completed his first nine passes. This perfection was tempered by the fact that only two of them went for more than ten yards, with the longest being fourteen. For the game, the Cowboys QB had a good game, finishing 24-34 with no interceptions. However, he threw for only 227 yards, for a 6.67 YPA. For a quarterback who has the one of the best career YPAs in league history, with four seasons over 8.0, this is a very low mark - and is made more so by his high completion percentage. The upshot is that the Cowboys, who recently had one of the league's best deep passing games, are struggling to get receivers open deep.

Nah, the Redskins are legit. You shouldn't have expected a blow out. Unlike Carolina... when you guys face inferior talent, you blow them out.

I fully expect a spanking from the Giants who own Dallas Stadium. The key to this game is Romo being more aggressive on deeper passes. He only threw 1 pass beyond 20 yards against Carolina. He was 4-11 on passes between 10-19 yards. Most of his completions were short passes yesterday. The offense was conservative as hell. If we're gonna beat the Giants, Romo is gonna have to take off his Captain Checkdown cape.

The way our defense can play it's basically close your eyes and throw a dart and if it comes out they play good, then we will, if it comes out bad, then we play poorly. Our defensive side of the ball will always be a pain in the regular season until we get a good DC. Fewell is terrible and I have ZERO faith in him in the regular season.

So let's not get ahead of ourselves. If the defense plays like we did against the 9ers than I think we can do some damage. However, I doubt that happens. Fewell will do what he did last sunday. That's rush 3 and drop Tuck in coverage! I was waiting for him to bust that beauty out and he did. Amazing Justin Tuck in coverage. I hate Fewell, i really do.

We need big plays mixed in with our current approach. We have the speed to make it happen and Tony can toss the ball deep VERY well. That over the shoulder toss to Austin in the end zone was about the most perfect throw one can make.

Did they? Glad I'm not too off in my assessment then. :) I don't read btb as much as I should. They have good stuff from time to time.

I read one article today that was nearly in sync with what I was trying to say yesterday. So much so, that I think he must have read my post before publishing his article! Hahaha, I kid, I kid.

The way our defense can play it's basically close your eyes and throw a dart and if it comes out they play good, then we will, if it comes out bad, then we play poorly. Our defensive side of the ball will always be a pain in the regular season until we get a good DC. Fewell is terrible and I have ZERO faith in him in the regular season.

So let's not get ahead of ourselves. If the defense plays like we did against the 9ers than I think we can do some damage. However, I doubt that happens. Fewell will do what he did last sunday. That's rush 3 and drop Tuck in coverage! I was waiting for him to bust that beauty out and he did. Amazing Justin Tuck in coverage. I hate Fewell, i really do.

One thing that is different from the last time we played you guys... is aside from penalties, our OL has been playing better and better. Not having Livings, Bernadeau and Costa healthy in training camp and Cook being a late addition, perhaps we were more harsh on them that they deserved. They are improving and that's all I hope for. In the last 3 games Romo has only been sacked twice. Carolina did not even touch him. Carolina sucks though. Our real problem is Romo's hesitancy to go deep even when given time to throw.

One thing that BtB mentioned today that I found interesting was this though.

Quote:

295: The average weight of the Panthers' four starting defensive linemen, a far cry from the 333 pounds averaged by the Ravens 3-man front. Seemingly spurred by the haunting memory of Bill Nagy and Phil Costa's inability to move New England's big uglies Vince Woolfork and Ty Warren, one of the team's offseason goals was to get bigger and stronger along the offensive line. Enter free agents Nate Livings and MacKenzie Bernardeau, who offer significantly more heft and raw power than Nagy and Kyle Kosier. When matched up against Baltimore's big dudes, the plan appeared to be a success, as the Cowboys sustained blocks and consistently chewed off big chunks in the running game.

When facing four-man fronts against Seattle and Tampa Bay earlier in the year, however, the interior O-line appeared slow and was exposed by quickness. By trading quickness for size, in other words, the Cowboys appeared to have robbed Peter to pay Paul; in Carolina, this thesis seemed to be further substantiated, as they struggled to run the ball consistently against the Panthers' front four, especially in the second half. With smaller, quicker foursomes on the horizon in six of the next seven weeks (and with Costa likely to miss at least the next few games), we'll soon know more concretely if struggles against four-man fronts are to be one of the season's dominant storylines.

So let's see how we handle the G-Men who have possibly the best front 4 in the NFL. If Romo is aggressive, then I think we'll have a fighting chance. Especially if we don't have Murray.

Defensively, we're really starting to click. I'm excited to see if we can keep it up against you guys. This is gonna be a true test here. Carr had a rough time against Steve Smith (7 receptions and a holding penalty), but Claiborne has been pretty shutdown and even had his 1st INT. Jenkins only had 1 snap against Carolina, but they don't run 3 WR sets too often. I expect Jenkins to play a lot more against you guys.

We had one pass over 20 yards last week, which was the TD to Austin. Since when did our offense become so anemic? So afraid to go downfield, or even attempt a shot. We have all these weapons and a wide open offense but we clam it down. Goes hand in hand with the playcall at the end to play for the FG.

No reason that that type of play calling is acceptable.

__________________

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scott Wright

I guarantee that if someone picks Cam Newton in the Top 5 they will regret it.

We had one pass over 20 yards last week, which was the TD to Austin. Since when did our offense become so anemic? So afraid to go downfield, or even attempt a shot. We have all these weapons and a wide open offense but we clam it down. Goes hand in hand with the playcall at the end to play for the FG.

No reason that that type of play calling is acceptable.

Romo was the second-most accurate deep passer in the league last season, according to Pro Football Focus.

Even when Romo had a clean pocket all day against Carolina, he only threw that 1 deep pass.

Something weird is going on. It's not for inability to do so. It's mental. Romo has always had fragile mental issues, but I blame Garrett too. The both of them have to recognize what's going on here. Adjustments have to be made.

Romo was the second-most accurate deep passer in the league last season, according to Pro Football Focus.

Even when Romo had a clean pocket all day against Carolina, he only threw that 1 deep pass.

Something weird is going on. It's not for inability to do so. It's mental. Romo has always had fragile mental issues, but I blame Garrett too. The both of them have to recognize what's going on here. Adjustments have to be made.

Panthers played super deep in the back end since they didn't have to respect Felix Jones too. Garrett needs to get back to how he was successful. Mixing draws, screens, counters, and DEEP play action into a high octane offense. This dink-and-dunk stuff doesn't really play into Romo's strengths.

He probably doesn't feel entirely confident in his protections when he dials up a 7 step drop. Maybe that's the underlying problem?

Those aren't the only way we can throw deep passes though. You can do a 3 step drop and take a shot deep outside. It's a staple of this offense and has been for a long time, as long as our line has been terrible so that's nothing new. It was a losing gameplan, only reason it didn't end that way is we played the 1 team who is better at finding ways to lose then we are.

I am positive if we dial up something that conservative again it'll be a failure.

__________________

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scott Wright

I guarantee that if someone picks Cam Newton in the Top 5 they will regret it.

Those aren't the only way we can throw deep passes though. You can do a 3 step drop and take a shot deep outside. It's a staple of this offense and has been for a long time, as long as our line has been terrible so that's nothing new. It was a losing gameplan, only reason it didn't end that way is we played the 1 team who is better at finding ways to lose then we are.

I am positive if we dial up something that conservative again it'll be a failure.

You guys play us well though. Especially offensively. I can't remember the last time we shut you down.

Romo was the second-most accurate deep passer in the league last season, according to Pro Football Focus.

Even when Romo had a clean pocket all day against Carolina, he only threw that 1 deep pass.

Something weird is going on. It's not for inability to do so. It's mental. Romo has always had fragile mental issues, but I blame Garrett too. The both of them have to recognize what's going on here. Adjustments have to be made.

I haven't done the research on this, but it looks to me like we've changed the way we use Dez & Miles. It seems like Dez is more the possesion type guy and Miles the deep threat. I actually think it should be reversed. Austin is the good route runner and should run the slants, ins and such. Dez should be the guy that uses his speed and athleticism to make plays down field. Just my opinion.

__________________
In war, you win or lose, live or die - and the difference is just an eyelash.

I haven't done the research on this, but it looks to me like we've changed the way we use Dez & Miles. It seems like Dez is more the possesion type guy and Miles the deep threat. I actually think it should be reversed. Austin is the good route runner and should run the slants, ins and such. Dez should be the guy that uses his speed and athleticism to make plays down field. Just my opinion.

Garrett already admitted Miles wasn't 100% for the majority of the season thus far. I wonder if the route trees are protecting him from those routes.

Either way Miles is our slot guy which is getting him a ton of free releases. We need to take advantage of that and use more bunch/stack.

I haven't done the research on this, but it looks to me like we've changed the way we use Dez & Miles. It seems like Dez is more the possesion type guy and Miles the deep threat. I actually think it should be reversed. Austin is the good route runner and should run the slants, ins and such. Dez should be the guy that uses his speed and athleticism to make plays down field. Just my opinion.

Yeah that's what I said too. Austin is our slot WR, but our use of the slot is not like the Welker, Amendola, Bess types. Since slots are used many different ways... You got the quick, shifty, difficult to cover guys...aka the Welkers... you got the physical possession receiver slots, like Colston, Avant, Boldin... you got the deep game receiver slots, like Cruz, Santana Moss, and Austin. ...and that's not even counting TE's who line up in the slot.

Calling a WR a slot used to mean that he's got incapabilities to play X or Z. People often say it's their #3 WR. But teams now often use their best WRs in the slot. The position doesn't have inferiority anymore. That's why I don't pay attention to Bob when he whines about Austin not being our #1 WR. ...as if there is such a label that matters. ...Miles is our best fit for the slot. ...and when you consider that in Coryell's offense that the deep read is the #1 read, then Miles technically CAN be considered our #1 WR.

Maybe the issue is that we should change up the way we use the slot. We should use Miles as a hybrid. Having Miles in the slot is awesome because he literally can do it all. He can cut the rug, he can break tackles, he can go deep, he can be physical... only draw back is his proneness to injury.

Or maybe it's not that. Maybe our use of Miles is perfectly fine... Having him go deep isn't the problem. But maybe we need MULTIPLE guys going deep! The idea needs to be pounded in Garrett's brain that he needs to send Dez deep more... I think that's what we need.... and Romo needs to trust him to go up and beat his man (both him and Miles matter of factly). Send them deep and have Witten and Ogletree work the soft zone underneath. Ogletree deep hasn't worked the way Laurent worked last year, that's for sure. But he has been pretty clutch on short passes. Rework the program Garrett! Try it!

Yeah that's what I said too. Austin is our slot WR, but our use of the slot is not like the Welker, Amendola, Bess types. Since slots are used many different ways... You got the quick, shifty, difficult to cover guys...aka the Welkers... you got the physical possession receiver slots, like Colston, Avant, Boldin... you got the deep game receiver slots, like Cruz, Santana Moss, and Austin. ...and that's not even counting TE's who line up in the slot.

Calling a WR a slot used to mean that he's got incapabilities to play X or Z. People often say it's their #3 WR. But teams now often use their best WRs in the slot. The position doesn't have inferiority anymore. That's why I don't pay attention to Bob when he whines about Austin not being our #1 WR. ...as if there is such a label that matters. ...Miles is our best fit for the slot. ...and when you consider that in Coryell's offense that the deep read is the #1 read, then Miles technically CAN be considered our #1 WR.

Maybe the issue is that we should change up the way we use the slot. We should use Miles as a hybrid. Having Miles in the slot is awesome because he literally can do it all. He can cut the rug, he can break tackles, he can go deep, he can be physical... only draw back is his proneness to injury.

Or maybe it's not that. Maybe our use of Miles is perfectly fine... Having him go deep isn't the problem. But maybe we need MULTIPLE guys going deep! The idea needs to be pounded in Garrett's brain that he needs to send Dez deep more... I think that's what we need.... and Romo needs to trust him to go up and beat his man (both him and Miles matter of factly). Send them deep and have Witten and Ogletree work the soft zone underneath. Ogletree deep hasn't worked the way Laurent worked last year, that's for sure. But he has been pretty clutch on short passes. Rework the program Garrett! Try it!

#1 is a guy who gets the most targets. Where they line up is irrelevant. Good try however.